


The Pomegranate Tree

by Owlwithafringe



Category: Greek and Roman Mythology
Genre: A Pomegranate Tree, Dreams, F/M, Fluff, Greek Mythology - Freeform, The Underworld (Hades)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-31
Updated: 2015-07-31
Packaged: 2018-04-12 07:48:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4471160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Owlwithafringe/pseuds/Owlwithafringe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nothing could grow in the Underworld. It was impossible, a fact of the universe.</p><p>So why then, was a Pomegranate tree blossoming in Hades?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Pomegranate Tree

The ground was cracked and hard under her bare feet though she was unaffected by the rough terrain, the Goddess of Springtime was used to dancing among the fields as a child. Persephone walked along the embankment of the Acheron, watching the souls pass through the silver River of Woe, after their judgement by judged by Minos, Rhadamanthus and Aeacus to pass to the Elysium Fields or the Fields of Asphodel. 

Of all the five rivers that made up Hades, Acheron was the Queen of the Underworld’s favourite. The echoes of wailing from Cocytus could be heard distantly, the shades of the dead mourning before passing into Cocytus to heal. Persephone liked to watch the souls, some young, some not, but all of them soothed and ushered into their next destination. Some would pass on, into the Lethe, the river of forgetfulness to go on to be reincarnated into a new life and others would head to the Fields for eternal peace.

It made the Phlegethon all but a distant memory, the screams and howls of the wicked passing through a river of fire an echo. Those souls would not find peace in Elysium. There was only one place they would find themselves: Tartarus, to be judged for their earthly sins. 

This, the Underworld, was her kingdom, and the dead were her subjects.

That day though, it wasn’t the rivers that Persephone was interested in: they were merely passing features on her way to something else. The night previously, Morpheus, the God of Dreams had slipped into hers with a message. He told her of a strange occurrence happening in her realm and that she must seek it out. 

She didn’t know what she was looking for. Morpheus had been vague in his descriptions, almost speaking in riddles. It was something that was usually quite amusing to watch happen however when it was happening to yourself, it was more than a little frustrating. 

But then she saw it. This is what Morpheus had spoken to her about, for surely it could be nothing but what was in front of her.

Stood tall, a dominating feature of the landscape in its own right, was a tree. Its branches and trunk were gnarled and twisted out of shape like a bad dream, the leaves brown and barely clinging to the branches, and to life. 

The trees existence balanced on the eternal battle of life and death: one which death would inevitably win. It did not mean that this tree would not fight back however. It was fighting a perpetual struggle against nature. Whilst it looked like it was dying, a closer inspection would reveal a different tale.

New green buds were clawing their way to reveal themselves, and what was possibly most miraculous of all were the small pink fruits that had started growing, dangling more firmly off the branches than the leaves were, a new era of life dominating over the dying parts. Despite these fruits having barely flowered Persephone recognised them for what they were.

Where they lived, in the land of the dead, a single pomegranate tree had grown. 

An impossible tree, one that should not exist. Nothing grew in Hades for everything that passed through was dead. But somehow this tree had managed to grow and live, when the very fabric of the universe told it should not. 

Persephone reached up a hand to cradle one of the fruits. Some leaves broke off at her touch, caressing her arm as they fell to the ground, to join the pile surrounding the tree already. The fruit however was smooth to touch and firmly rooted in the tree. 

A firm hand landed on her shoulder, warm fingers curling over her bare skin causing her heart to flutter. Persephone let her hand drop from the blossoming fruit and leaned into the touch, however she did not break her wonder-filled gaze at the tree. 

Morpheus must have sent him too – well, perhaps not sent. No-one sent the King of the Underworld anywhere, but he might he’d advised him, like he had Persephone. 

“A tree?” Hades voice had many different tones woven into it; Shock, wonder, surprise. For all the eons he had lived there, he had never seen anything quite like it. Then again ever since Persephone had come to the Underworld nothing had quite been the same. 

It was only then that Persephone turned to face Hades. His pale face was watching the tree as if was some sort of trick that it would suddenly spring into motion and attack him. To a stranger’s eye he looked every inch of the eldest son of Cronus, dressed in his finery as Lord of Hades, his dark beard providing him an air of wisdom and age. He looked just as righteous as Zeus, just as deadly as Poseidon. But Persephone was no stranger, and to her he just looked like a confused little boy.

“How did this come to be?” Persephone asked. She didn’t need to gesture at the tree for him to know what she was referring to.

Hades glanced warily at the tree and then back his wife, slowly forming his own conclusion. “I think, my love, it was you.”

“Me?” 

Hades nodded, a barely-there smile of fondness appearing across his lips. “You bring life, it is what you do. You are a Goddess of Springtime, your mother, the Goddess of Harvest.” 

Persephone shook her head in disagreement, her emotions a lot more plain on her face than her husbands. She smiled sadly, almost nostalgically at the mention of her mother. “Perhaps I was before I came here, but not anymore. Nothing can grow here.”

“No.” Hades agreed. “Nothing has grown here before. But before, we never had you.” This time his smile was more open than it had done previously, his love for his wife evident. 

Persephone felt herself blush under the adoring observation. She glanced at him from underneath her lashes. “You really think this was me?”

“I think you’re far more capable than you think.” Hades responded, before turning back to study the tree.

Persephone mirrored his action, taking his hand in hers. She thought about the tree and the possibilities it could mean. “I wonder if anything else will grow.”

Hades squeezed her hand and smiled tenderly. “We have the rest of eternity to find out.”

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this as part of a folio and I recently found it on my desktop. I reread it and found I quite liked it so I decided to post. My acknowledgment to my love of Greek Mythology.
> 
> Feel free to leave kudos and comments, feedback is always appreciated and motivates me to write more! Come and find me on Tumblr at **Owlwithafringe** , to see updates on fics or to leave me a prompt.


End file.
